Tin Bucket: Filling Station

Growlers are an overrated component of
beer-geek culture. It’s a lot of the same beer, and the longer it sits,
the warmer and flatter it gets. So Tin Bucket (3520 N Williams Ave., 477-7689)
is something of a revelation. The new bottle
shop/taproom/growler-filling station is a gleaming monument to Oregon
brewing. A bank of coolers holds a respectable range of bottles, and
while the taproom suffers most from its limited seating, the inviting
space has already attracted regulars in the neighborhood. The taps are
the stars, though. The row of proprietary pressurizing nozzles, which
fill both pints and growlers, are spread across a long counter, each
looking more like a spaceship’s stasis chamber than a standard row of
tap handles. Tin Bucket’s pourers spend most of their time hovered over
the clear chambers, which seem to run slowly. It’s hypnotic to watch, so
have a pint while you wait. The payoff? Once pressurized, these
growlers will stay as fresh as a bottle or can. The 40-tap selection
featured a wide array of styles—a steal at $5 to $7 for 32-ounce pours,
considering bombers 10 ounces lighter cost at least that much. The best
aspect of Tin Bucket’s system isn’t realized until you’re back home: My
growler of Solera Brewery’s the Fez was tap-fresh the next evening, with
the growler emitting a gasp as I cracked it, just like factory-packaged
beer. I sipped at the lemony sour contentedly, finally free of the
creeping dread that my beer was dying because I couldn’t drink it fast
enough.